Mind the Gap
by Outtie
Summary: A series of short stories which aspire to fill in some of the many gaps and plot holes littering the Once universe. What happened to Rumple the first time he visited the underworld? Why did Zeus save Hook and not Hood? Who was Rumple's mother?
1. Rumple and Pan in the Underworld Part 1

**RUMPLE and PAN in the UNDERWORLD Part One**

 _ **Mr. Gold:**_ _Hello, Papa.  
_ _ **Malcolm:**_ _Rumple, please. You can stop this. Remove the dagger. We can start over._ _(Smiles)_ _We can have a happy ending.  
_ _ **Mr. Gold:**_ _Oh, but I'm a villain. And villains don't get happy endings._

In a flash the pain ceased altogether and Rumple found himself still embracing his father Malcolm, who was once again a grown-up. The pair were standing at the edge of a lake surrounded by mist. It was Malcolm who broke the embrace first, shoving his son away.

"What have you done?!"

Both men instinctively back away and begin warily circling each other as their minds tried to fathom what had just happened. Once again it was Malcolm who acted first raising his hand to summon a fireball...which never appeared.

Rumple smiled. "Looks like your magic is all dried up, papa. Was it perhaps tied to your youth?" he shrugged, "...whoops."

"Looks like you're getting a reprieve then, Laddie." said Malcolm, looking rather disconcerted at the return of the older deeper timbered voice he hadn't heard in centuries. "For now." he added challengingly.

"I don't think you seem to understand what going on here, Papa." Rumple replied, "Look around you... do you see Storybrook? Face it Papa... we're dead! I think the time for fighting has passed, don't you? Why can't you let go of Peter Pan and be my papa again...while you still can."

"Nonsense, laddie, I see a mist over water...looks like Neverland to me. Did you transport us here to abandon me to the mercies of the shadows? Do you think that just because I'm a few years older that they won't recognize their leader?!"

"Shut up, Papa! We are not in Neverland and I can prove it too you...Look!" He pointed around the lake where a lone light bobbed in the distance. In a moment the light drew closer and the men could see that it was actually a boat driven by a creature in a dark robe that held aloft an old-fashioned oil-lamp that seemed spookily unaffected by the damp mist surrounding them.

"Oh my God." breathed Malcolm as the realization sunk in at last, "We're dead...I'm dead! YOU killed us both!" Furious Malcolm leapt upon his son and tried to strangle him, but it soon became apparent that this attack had no more effect on Rumple than his earlier attempt at magic had.

"Dead men don't need to breath, Papa." he said, sounding surprisingly calm with his father's hands wrapped around his throat. "It is appointed unto men ONCE to die and after that...judgment."

"Well I don't see any judges here, laddie." said Malcolm a trifle sullenly. "And I don't think either of us wants to see that happen. Now do we?"

"You left me no choice."

"I gave you your chance! You didn't take it." he paused, "And don't think that they'll let you into the 'better' place just for killing me! One good deed..."

"...is not enough to redeem a lifetime of wickedness." finished Rumple, "Three or four lifetimes really." he corrected, "I'm well aware of that saying and no, I don't expect to go to a better place at all. In fact I expect we'll both be in whatever torment the worse place has to offer its honored guests very soon. But you know what papa? ...I don't care. I saved my son and I saved Belle and I can live with whatever consequences are waiting for me now."

"Live with...funny choice of words for this place." Malcolm muttered as the barge docked.

The bargeman beckoned them on board with a bony hand.

A few minutes...or hours...or days later they arrived at a strangely familiar dock to find a well-dressed man waiting for them.

"Well, well, well...if it isn't Peter Pan and Rumplestiltskin." the well-dressed man greeted them warmly, offering them each a hand to disembark from the barge. "How very nice to finally meet you." he said, shaking each of their hands in turn, adding "I'm a big fan."

"Wish I could say the same." Rumple muttered, "What is this place?"

"This gentlemen...is the underworld. A weigh station to eternal damnation if you will."

"A momentary reprieve then?" commented Rumple.

"A place to work out our unfinished business?" Malcolm queried.

"Well that could take some time." quipped Rumple.

"Why does this place look like Storybrooke?" Malcolm asked looking around, "That doesn't make any sense at all now does it?"

"Your questions are pointless." said Hades as he gestured for the Stiltskin men to follow him into town.

Hades didn't bother with a guided tour, he simply strolled into town and led his new guests down Main Street, drinking in the looks of fear and loathing the appearance of two such distinguished guests caused among the denizens of his decaying realm.

"They do seem a bit mob like, don't they?" Hades commented as more and more people began pouring into the street to gape at them. "Mind the pitchforks" he added, though actually there wasn't a pitchfork in site.

"Great. We're going to be torn apart by a bunch of lame peasants without a decent story between them and end up spending eternity in like forty distinct pieces instead of in Neverland." Malcolm grumbled.

"Eternity in Neverland with you? I'd rather be torn apart by peasants." Rumple muttered.

"I would've let you bring your wife. And Henry too of course. I still need his heart after all."

"Belle isn't my wife, and you are never going to get your hands on my grandson's heart again."

"Not even married yet? Cor you do take your time, laddie. I'd think you would be in a hurry to bind the girl to you before she can change her mind. Family is important my boy! Why your mother and I may not have had a long marriage, but we LIVED while we could."

"I don't need a lecture on family from YOU...papa."

"Gentlemen, gentlemen. No need to squabble." interrupted Hades. "Ah, yes. We're here." he said leading them into a familiar shop. "What do you think of your new underworld pawn shop?" he asked.

"I have no interest in settling in here." Rumple growled.

"Oh, no...no." Hades laughed humorlessly, "I can see why you'd think that. But...no."

Rumple shook his head, "I don't understand."

"The shop is actually for your father."

"What?!" both men protest their dislike of this arrangement, but Hades simply holds up his hand and says, "The deal is done. Malcolm will run the shop..."

"I don't want to run a bloody shop! I'm Peter Pan not Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater!"

"What if I gave you back your eternal youth in the bargain?"

Malcolm crossed his arms, "And my magic. I'd want my magic back."

Hades pretended to hum and haw about it... "Done!" he said snapping his fingers. In a flash Malcolm was Pan once more, though now he wore a suit which was a bit more befitting of the respectable business man he was now to become. Respectable being a relative term down here (as so many things were).

Rumple frowned and Hades said, "Don't worry Rumple. I haven't forgotten you. YOU my dear...friend? Can I can you friend?" 

"I'd rather you didn't."

"Fine then." he paused, "YOU Rumple are my biggest...supplier of souls EVER. Though I admit you have been rather...stingy of late."

Rumple's frown deepened.

"So what I really want is for you to get back out there and go back to being, well...YOU."

"You can do that? You can send me back?" He sounded hopeful, yet unbelieving.

"Well let's just say I have a friend up there. A rather...colorful friend, who will be only too happy to assist in your...return."

"What's your price? All magic comes with a price."

"Impossible to say I'm afraid."

"You mean you don't know?"

"NO. I mean I won't tell you."

"Then I won't agree to your deal."

"Who said I needed your agreement? Deals like so many other things are quite different down here..."


	2. Hook and Hood's Bogus Journey

**Hook and Hood's Bogus Journey**

A bit dazed from his magic induced death, Robin Hood arrives in Olympus and is greeted by a kid in a white robe claiming to be 'Zeus' ( _whoever that is. Perhaps a sage from another tale which Regina has yet to tell me of?)_. Zeus thanks him for helping to vanquish his brother Hades by sacrificing his life to show Zelena what a putz Hades was and leads him over to Hook who is waiting in the Mount Olympus green room.

Robin Hood is obviously confused, so Zeus explains, "I know, I know. You were expecting to be obliterated out of existence by the 'Olympian' crystal my ridiculous brother whipped up , but...yeah...we, uh really can't do that. Obliterating souls isn't really in our power. Deeper magic at work and all that."

"What does that even mean?!" Hood asked.

"Your questions are pointless." Zeus waved away any further questions on the matter. "Down to business gentlemen" he said, once the two of them were seated in their fluffy cloud chairs; Hook instinctively picking the black cloud chair and Hood the white. "I have a small dilemma..."

"You know they have pills for that in Storybrook mate." Hook offered.

"Ah yes, juvenile humor...the charming trademark of the lower beings. Very amusing. Back on point...gentlemen I owe both a you a great debt for defeating my brother Hades...unfortunately I am only able to grant one of you a return to corporeal life, so unless one of you wants to volunteer..."

Hook looks at Hood, who looks nervously around, wondering if being on the hero side of the coin really has to extend to that. But before Hood can volunteer, Zeus continues... "I didn't think so. Anyway...only one body to give and two heroes..." Zeus looks at Hook and modifies that to "two reasonably nice 'as of late' dudes in need of a shiny new body...So I've decided the only fair way to settle this is to play for it."

"It?"

"Yeah, ' _it'_. The body, The return trip to corporealville... one time offer. One winner only. The game gentlemen...is called Battleship."

"Battle _ship_?" Hood sounded baffled, "But that's hardly fair when you consider that Hook is a mariner and I'm a mere denizen of the forest."

"It really doesn't matter." said Zeus, growing quickly bored with this and deciding to cut the second and third rounds of Clue and Twister and make this one an old one and done, "Trust me on that."

So seeing little alternative Hood and Hook play Battleship and Hook wins handily (get it?), probably because Hook was cheating, but Zeus pretends not to notice and quickly congratulates Hook and sends him back to Storybrooke. Hood asks Hook to 'please let Regina know that he's not obliterated after all, but Hook forgets to tell her that for like ten years or something until baby Robin writes an essay on how much it sucks to have a father who's been obliterated from the universe and then Hook is all, 'Oh duh. I forgot to tell you all that Hood isn't obliterated, he's just in the better place now. Zeus promised to take him right up.'

But I digress.

Anyway on the way to the better place Hood asks Zeus what happened to Hades.

"Well..." said Zeus, "Let's just say he's getting a taste of his own medicine and move on..." he looks at Hood and winces, "oops poor choice of words there. " he paused a moment, he'd never been sure on how to ends things like this, so lacking any words of wisdom Zeus opened a pearly gate, nudged Hood inside with a discrete zap of lightning and waved goodbye as he hotfooted it back down to Olympus to have a nice plate of ambrosia.


	3. The Blacksmith's Boy

**The Blacksmith's Boy**

The forge was hot as Hades and just as inescapable; sweat poured down his back as young Malcolm the blacksmith's indentured boy wearily returned the cooling piece of iron back into the fire with a scowl. Through a haze of sweat he watched two of the free children from the village as they played in the street outside his master's forge.

His heart seethed with envy as he watched them at their play and so he picked up a flaming coal with his tongs and flung it at the children and he laughed as they ran away.

The blacksmith cuffed him on the ear when the parents complained, but the pain was worth it to Malcolm.

One day after a particularly nasty beating from the blacksmith he stood under the stars and wished for a way out of the smithy so that he could play all day like the other children he saw in the village.

"Boy why are you crying?"

Startled, Malcolm hastily wiped away the betraying tear and turned around to find a pretty young girl standing there. "I was NOT crying!" he lied, "I was merely wiping the sweat out of my eyes."

"It's a cool evening." she commented dryly.

"I sweat all day in the forge." he counted, "A few moments outside will hardly cool me."

"Why only a few moments?" she asked, "It's a beautiful night; we could walk all the way to the next village and be back my morning."

"Won't your parents worry if you stay out all night?" he asked.

The girl it turned out lived with the local spinsters, learning her own trade just as he was learning his, though she seemed to have more freedom than he did. But even so they had much in common and from that day on they never missed a chance to sneak off from work to play together. The girl admitted to him that she was a fairy being raised to live among the humans as the other spinsters did, to keep an eye on them and report back to the more important fairies. But she wasn't interesting in watching the humans...no, she longed to be human herself; to play the games they played and sing the songs they sang...and so they played card games by the river or played at being pirates by the docks and sang songs all through the night as they capered around town, ignoring their work and earning both of them many scoldings and much (in their eyes anyway) ill treatment from the adults...and all the while they made plans to run away.

Then one day they did.

The blacksmith sent the bailiffs after his indenture of course, but Malcolm and the girl were both very clever and had little trouble eluding them. Time went on and as children are wont to do, they grew up and the games they played took on a different shape and before long so did she and they had to get married.

When the baby was born he was a small sickly looking thing and he cried all through the night, demanding to be held or to be fed and this was quite the unwelcome change to the carefree couple. She bore the burden better than he did, but in the end all the late nights alone with the baby while her husband drank away the little money they had in the tavern took their toll and so she left him and returned back to her own people with the baby.

Malcolm was angry at first, but he quickly decided that he was well rid of the pair of them and it was much easier get along on his own.

But only a few days elapsed before Malcolm awoke, his head pounding from last night's ale to see a blinding blue light flittering angrily around the room...as soon as he sat up, the blue light grew until it became a fairy wearing a gaudy blue dress and a stern expression and carrying a bundle of old rags.

"I think this belongs to you." she said tossing the bundle into his arms. Malcolm may have been hung over, but he was pretty sure he knew what was inside by the squirming and the piercing cry it emitted a moment later only confirmed it. "How dare you defile a fairy!" she fumed, "Humans and fairies do NOT mix!" she insisted.

"Where is my wife?" he demanded, holding the baby away from his body as it wee'd in his father's arms. "...and what am _I_ supposed to do with him?!"

"Where your 'wife' is, is none of YOUR concern and as for Rumplestiltskin...he's your problem now."

"Wait! Who or what is a Rumplestiltskin?!" Malcolm shouted at The Blue Fairy as she shrunk down into a blue ball and headed for the window.

"That's the name we gave the child of course." the blue ball said as it flew out the window.

"Rumple _stiltskin_?!" he repeated the name in a sarcastic tone, "...only a fairy would name a lad that." Feeling awkwardly around the wet bundle he finally found the corner of the cloth and pulled the bundle open to get a better look at his son. The baby had ceased to cry and was now pursing his lips in expectation of a meal that wasn't likely to arrive as soon as he hoped.

Ignoring the wet nappy, Malcolm held his son up and looked into his deep brown eyes. "Oh, I don't know though." he wondered aloud, "It could be having a little one around might make the toffs a bit more sympathetic to a poor travelers plight..." he commented, thinking of how much more harmless he'd appear with a sweet innocent baby trailing behind him and that wet nappy would make an excellent hiding place for the coins he planned on separating from the local populace before he moved on to the next village. He smiled and his son smiled back at him. Yes indeed, this particular problem might be useful after all.


	4. Bae Grows Up and then Back Down Again

**Baelfire Grows Up...and then Back Down Again**

"But papa won't the villagers think it's strange that I'm...bigger?"

Rumple brushed aside his son's fears, "You're the son of The Dark One, Dearie... No one will DARE to question you...now hold still... this won't hurt a bit." Rumplestiltskin scrunched up his face and snapped his fingers, but the spell just didn't seem to be working. In fairness to him he'd only been The Dark One for a few weeks and he was only just beginning to understand that not all magic is as easy as dispatching the Duke's henchmen had been. "Hold still Bae." he admonished the squirming boy who looked at least sixteen at the moment but was in fact only fourteen as his too tight tunic could attest. "This should only take a minute." he promised, _hoping that this time it was true._

"No papa! I told you I don't want you too..."

Baelfire blinked at his papa and stared down at his body and his chubby little hands balled themselves into fists. He wasn't too big any longer. In fact now he appeared to be a small child of perhaps four.

His papa apologized of course, but it didn't help matters. He was fourteen FOURTEEN years old, not FOUR! He knew his papa had been trying to please him by making him older, but the spell had clearly back-fired and he wasn't at all sure how he would explain _this_ to his friends. _Not that his 'friends' were likely to visit him now that his father was The Dark One_. "Change me back!" he wailed, startling himself with his own high pitched childish voice.

It took a few days, but Rumplestiltskin eventually found a more stable growth portion, though his son still had a tendency to shrink or grow a few years every now and again when the moon was full... _Hmm perhaps I shouldn't have used werewolf blood in my potion_ , Rumple thought as he watched Bae pass through the moonlit garden, his trousers noticeably too short for his (currently) long legs.

"Oh, well. Mustn't get too bogged down with these pesky little details." he said to himself; lengthening his son's trousers with a quick snap of his golden fingers and closing the window against the strong light of the new moon.


	5. Cora's Honeymoon

**CORA's HONEYMOON**

Cora looked up at her newlywed husband's proud face and laughed at him. _Obedience indeed_! She scoffed even as the dry old priest finished saying the marriage blessing over them. She had no intention of being _that kind_ of wife and if Henry expected her to bend to his will simply because he was a noble and a MAN...then he had another thing coming.

Her time with Rumplestiltskin had not been idly spent and the potion was an easy one based off one her old master's own spells. Cora smiled as she poured the sickly green liqueur into her husband's tea and she giggled gaily, the perfect picture of an innocent young bride trying to please her newlywed husband as he drank the tea she'd brought him as he sat expectantly in their bed. She didn't have to wait long before her husband started to gasp and clutch at chest.

"Oh, dear." she cried, keeping up the pretence a few moments longer so that the impact on Henry when he finally realized what she'd done would be even more acute. "Whatever can be wrong my husband?!"

"Cora..." he gasped, struggling for breath, "I think...I've...been ...poisoned! I...I think I'm...dying!" he finally managed, as his face began turning grey.

"Oh no, dear." she smiled, treasuring her next few words. "You're not 'dying'. You're simply learning a harsh life lesson like the ones my father used to give me...before the drink took over his life that is."

"Wh-a-a-t? What...do you...mean?" he asked, clutching at his wife's cold hands.

"You married a witch my darling." she paused to let that sink in. "Your father knew of course, but it seems he thinks you might need someone like me if you're ever going to get anywhere in life." Cora watched in satisfaction as the potion reached his heart and the color slowly came back into Henry's face.

"What have you done to me?!" he demanded as soon as his breath returned.

"Nothing horrible my... _darling_ husband." Cora cooed, "What kind of wife would I be if I killed by husband on his wedding night? No, what you drank was simply a ...precaution on my part. I couldn't let you get the upper hand now could I? Now listen to me carefully Henry, because I hate having to repeat myself; from now on you will obey my every command for if you don't you will find the consequences exceedingly unsettling, because every time YOU dare to disobey MY wishes you will lose just a tiny bit of your proud height and if you continue to do so long enough, why then...you'll find yourself a bent old man looong before your time... Nod if you understand me dearest." she demanded, putting the tea tray aside and sliding into the bed.

Feeling a trapped as a rabbit in quicksand, Henry clenched his teeth and he nodded.


	6. Dr Gold and Mr Rumple

**Dr. Gold and Mr. Rumple**

"Well Rumple?" Mr. Hyde asked holding the mysterious vial aloft just out of The Dark One's reach. "Do we have a deal?"

Rumple's eye twitched at the word 'deal' and he wondered if Storybrooke could survive yet another influx of dubiously motivated immigrants bent on mysterious goals... meh probably. He looked from the vial Hyde was waving over his head to the box containing his pregnant self-cursed wife and back again. _I am sooo going to kill this man someday_ , he thought even as his lips formed the words to accept Mr. Hyde's deal.

Hyde handed over the vial and the box and Rumple opened a portal back to Storybrooke and watched stone-faced as dozens (or perhaps hundreds) of untold stories walked through to harass the 'good' people of Storybrooke. _Good riddance to a lot of bad rubbish_ , he thought as the last strangler stumbled through and he closed the door after him.

Setting the box down on the ground, Rumple opened the blood lock and extracted his wife; still snoozing placidly, onto what he assumed was Mr. Hyde's own bed. Then taking the vial from his inner jacket pocket he took a deep breath and poured the contents down his throat.

The separation was violently painful, but he was willing to do anything to get his wife back and after all...this was exactly what she'd asked for.

Within a minute the pain had gone and Rumplestiltskin found himself staring at his own golden reflection, who was clearly staring back at him and with such an intensively malevolent air that he now understood why the villagers always ran from him back in his (long) time in The Enchanted Forest (and other realms).

"Well well." the golden Rumple chirped, "Fancy meeting you here. Funny I never realized what a wimp I was before. A wimp with a limp ...wimp with a limp..." the golden man sang as he danced around his weaker half.

Rumplestiltskin trembled before The Dark One, but he remained resolute. "I may be a wimp, but at least _I_ have a good loving heart with which to wake up my wife...at least I hope I can. And I don't have a limp anymore! Hook healed it so he could enjoy killing us more...remember?"

" _Your_ wife?" Rumple repeated ignoring the talk of that filthy and soon to be dead again pirate, "As I recall it was...me she fell in love with. Or do you really think a fine noblewoman like Belle would ever look at a dirty spinner like you?"

"She loves the man behind the beast!" Rumplestiltskin cried, cringing as this exclamation brought the golden man closer to him once more.

"Noooo I think she loves the beast." the golden man replied saucily, "Its adventure she seeks, dearie. Like the heroines in her books. Not a dull life of darning your socks and watching her child grow up in a hovel."

"It doesn't have to be a hovel." Rumplestiltskin muttered, "There are many nice houses back in Storybrooke that we could live in."

"Storybrooke?" the golden man laughed merrily, "Do you honestly think they'll let you live there after everything we've done?"

"They've taken in strays before..."

"Strays yes...but not you. Haven't you noticed Rumple that no one seems to like you?"

"Belle loves me. That will be enough for me." Rumplestiltskin moved towards his wife.

"I think not!" The golden man exclaimed as he too moved towards the bed where Belle slept on, oblivious to their conversation.

Jostling comically for position the two men bent down and kissed their Belle; both having to settle for a cheek since neither would allow the other to kiss her lips.

With a fluttering of overly mascaraed eye-lashes Belle awoke to find her husband...make that husbands bending over her. Not surprisingly she screamed.

In fairness to Belle she had just spent like a week inside a burning red room, so she was kind of on edge as it was, so the shock of seeing her husband in surround sound came as a bit of a surprise.

Rumplestiltskin moved immediately to comfort her, clutching at her hand and murmuring his thankfulness that she was all right over and over again as he cried all over her hair.

For his part Golden Rumple held back and rolled his eyes at spinner Rumplestiltskin, mocking his sopping wet apology so charmingly that Belle actually laughed, which shocked Rumplestiltskin out of his repeated mutterings and caused him to stare at her as a slow terror clutched at his heart.

 _Could it really be true? Was it The Beast she loved all along? But she said she wanted me to be a good man! But then I became that man. A man with a heart heroic enough to pull Excalibur from the stone and yet...she'd still rejected me. It wasn't until I took the darkness back that she returned...but she hadn't known...how could she have known?_ Rumplestiltskin's stomach dropped into his boots as he stared at the two of them and all at once he was afraid of the answers.


	7. A Tale of Two Rumples

**A Tale of Two Rumple's**

While Belle was off trying to decide which husband she really preferred (and how to tell the peasanty one that it wasn't him), the two Rumples eyed each warily until the golden one had had enough and so he went and opened a time portal (no idea why it was so hard before when he could do it easily now) and tried to push the un-magical Rumplestiltskin through it into the past where he wouldn't have to look at him anymore...unfortunately the weaker and apparently more clumsy Rumplestiltskin had spilled some squid ink on himself as he milled around the room trying to look brave and so as soon as he was shoved inside the timehole, it expanded (due to the squid-ink), engulfing the golden one in his own time tunnel and sending them both hurtling back into the past. Different pasts actually. Why couldn't anything be simple?

I know I know...our questions are pointless.

))))))))))((((((((((

Landing roughly three and a half seasons into the past the unmagical Rumplestiltskin fell onto a woman who apologized profusely despite the fact that it was him who fell on her; He also fell onto another woman who did not apologize, but instead immediately drew her sword and started to threaten him. Once everybody calmed down Rumplestiltskin (now calling himself Sean Connery out of self-preservation since he no longer had the magic he'd definitely need to protect himself if any of these people learned his real name) learned that the two women were searching for their loved one who had had his soul removed by a wraith which appeared through a weird purple portal and there was also something about a cursed amulet or something... ( _whoopsie...did I do that?_ he wondered, trying his best to unravel the confusing timelines), having just been informed by Cora that this 'Phillip' wasn't dead after all, just lost to another world; the two women had been on their way to barter passage to another realm to search for more information on Phillip when 'Sean' had fallen out of the sky and onto their heads (and man was Mulan's helmet pointy when one falls out of a timehole onto it!) Felling really truly bad about the whole scenario now that all his bravado had been sucked out of him; Rumple...'er Sean agreed to help Mulan and Aurora recover Phillip's soul (though how they would get it back before his body rotted beyond repair was a point he felt would be uncouth of him to raise).

Though he no longer possessed any dark magic, he still remembered a few useful facts, one of which was that wraith victims always ended up in an ice cave in Neverland. Don't ask me why. Sleeping curses send you to a burning red room; wraiths drag souls to an inaccessible ice cave in a land where you never age. Wraiths...such jokesters.

 _Oh,well_ , he sighed, _At_ _least Hook won't be in Neverland right now. That's a plus_. He turned to the women and asked where he could buy a good stout pair of mittens...

Look I'm sure the saga of how Rumplestiltskin, Mulan and Aurora managed to get to Neverland, enter an inaccessible ice cave, rescue Phillip's soul and get back to his body in the Enchanted Forest before it got too ripe (all without magic I might add) would be a mighteous tale of awesomeness and all...but this was meant to be a short story and that sounds really really long so...let's just assume Ariel and um, Captain Morgan helped them out ok. Hey it's more than OUAT gave you and aren't at all curious about what happened to the other Rumple?

))))))))))((((((((((

Landing roughly four seasons or say 50-60 years into the past (plus or minus a curse or three)...look it it's complicated. Very complicated...The Golden Imp/Dark One/Rumple landed in a tavern just in time to catch Cora serving drinks and by catch I mean knock over. Since apologizing wasn't really a thing Dark Ones were doing this season he poofed himself away before the barkeep could yell broken glass.

The run-in wasn't entirely without merit since it gave him a good clue as to when and where he was and also cleared up a little puzzle he'd been working on since season three... 'er last year (or say three curses ago? So hard to keep track when one was dead for at least one of them). So who the bloody heck _was_ Zelena's father anyway? Cora hadn't exactly been forthcoming considering she hadn't even told him she already _had_ a firstborn when he tried to buy it from her...

 _Shouldn't a Dark One have known these things? If that Seer woman weren't dead already he'd kill her!_ he thought as he mulled over the problem in his mind. Hmmm, you know he'd never considered the time travel angle before. To be as powerful as she was at birth with such a common ( _and Cora was very common until she met me, dearie_ ) mother seemed absurd and yet the only being powerful enough to produce such a child at the time was well...himself.

"Well well..." he said, eyeing Cora's place of work with a whimsical eye."I suppose one must bend to the whims of time..."

Whistling a happy tune Rumple walked into the tavern like he owned the place and since he was wearing a handy dandy glamour spell, convincing a barmaid that he was a prince proved as easy as crushing a unicorn's heart. Let the 'good' half of him worry about how disturbing it was that Zelena kissed him in her kitchen while she was holding him captive. It was creepy enough already if you asked him.


End file.
